independent publishing, interdependent iconoclasm

We appear to be the happy operators of a menagerie! At a reading in Chicago on Tuesday, January 8th, an elderly gentleman concluded the night’s comments by saying that he had never heard of George Saunders until a few days earlier, but the New York Times’ review*’s claim was too substantial to deny. So, he […]

Playing at Red Tape Theater, 621 W. Belmont through OCTOBER 20th According to the dictionary, the word “skrike” means to cry or shriek. To me, the sound of the word repeated over and over is reminiscent of the pulsing high-pitched “skree skree skree” that occur in horror movies when a person appears from the shadows […]

If I close my eyes hard enough, maybe adding some pressure with my thumb and forefinger, I see glints of technicolor atop infinite darkness. I’m transported back to fourth grade, a field trip to the planetarium. Library-quietness hangs in the air inside the auditorium. The seats are plush and recline and swallow up the children. […]

For Nas, as with Orson Welles, his first was always his best. His 1994 debut, Illmatic, was unexpected, combative, clever, supremely confident, and often cocky (after all, every rapper worth his salt is his own best hype man). Nas has tried to live up to the potential of that masterful introduction for nearly two decades, […]